Huawei’s P50 will continue using the company’s Kirin chipsets
The US sanctions against Huawei have yet to be lifted, and last we heard, Huawei could run into issues producing its Kirin chipset and might have to seek alternatives from the likes of Qualcomm or MediaTek, but apparently that will not affect the company’s 2021 flagship smartphone, the Huawei P50.
If the report from Korean publication The Elec is accurate, it seems that the P50 will be using Huawei’s Kirin 9000 chipset. Apparently when faced with sanctions, Huawei decided to stockpile a large number of Kirin 9000 chipsets from TSMC, which in turn would allow them to use it in their P50 smartphone.
One of the “loopholes” of the sanctions is that Huawei is not allowed to produce/buy anymore pieces of technology from US companies or companies that rely on US technology. It does, however, allow the company to use what’s already been produced, so stockpiling the Kirin 9000 chipset lets Huawei work around that problem.
We’re not sure how many units the company has stockpiled and what will happen if demand exceeds supply. We imagine that the company probably did not stockpile enough to cover the Mate series that should launch later in 2021, so it will be interesting to see what they will do then.
The report also goes on to add that Samsung and LG will be providing Huawei with the OLED displays that will be used with the phone, but other than that, not much else is known and we’ll have to wait for more leaks or an official announcement.
Source: The Elec